Big Band Serenade With GLENN MILLER — A Quiz

Despite Glenn Miller’s relatively short career, he was the biggest thing in Big Bands since Benny Goodman’s ensemble burst upon the music scene in 1935. His death at the age of 40 in the winter of 1944 is still a mystery, never having been fully explained.

Like contemporary Harry James, he dared to step in front of cameras in Hollywood productions, and got stellar billing. Like Goodman, he is the subject of a full fledged, big-studio-backed movie biography with a major star in the leading role. (Goodman and Miller had another thing in common — both wore glasses.)

Glenn Miller was perhaps mid-20th century’s most popular big bandleader. His ensemble racked up 31 Top Ten hits in 1940, and 11 each year in 1941 and 1942. He was deeply patriotic, and died in the cause of bringing his music to the troops fighting in the European Theater of World War II.

The Miller ensemble was prominent in two Twentieth Century Fox features in 1941 and 1942: Sun Valley Serenade, a studio all-star vehicle; and Orchestra Wives. The former introduced such Miller band signatures as I Know Why and Chattanooga Choo Choo, while the latter ushered in I’ve Got A Gal In Kalamazoo and American Patrol.

Ok, let’s get to today’s Glenn Miller Quiz. Here we go:

1) Question: Which of these titles served as the theme song for the Glenn Miller Orchestra? a) Son of the Volga Boatman; b) The Man With The Mandolin; c) Sun Valley Jump; or d) Moonlight Serenade.

2) Question: What specifically were the circumstances of Miller’s death in 1944? a) As Major Miller, he was killed in combat in the Battle of the Bulge; b) He was found dead in a Paris brothel; c) He suffered an aneuryism while playing his trombone; or d) He disappeared in a plane crash flying from England to Paris.

4) Question: Which one of the following did NOT appear in a movie with Glenn Miller? a) Cesar Romero; b) Dorothy Dandridge; c) Sig Ruman; or d) Milton Berle.

5) Question: What was the instrumental secret to the distinctive Glenn Miller Orchestra sound? a) A brass section playing fortissimo; b) Distinctive band vocalists; c) A reed section voicing of a clarinet playing over four saxophones; d) Miller’s proficient trombone solos.

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GLENN MILLER’s “sudden death” is NEVER going to be truthfully explained, as it would be a little bit awkward, when the greatest band leader of WWII was in all probability the victim of friendly fire… Or rather a victim of “jettisoning.”

In 2001, the British Channel 4 TV documentary and newspaper The Guardian established that at 1.40 pm on December 15 a fleet of 139 Lancaster bombers returning from an aborted mission to Germany dumped their bombs above the English channel – and right on to Miller’s plane.

On December 15 1944, a single-engined Noorduyn Norseman aircraft left Twinwood Farm airbase in south-east England for Paris, carrying the hottest big-band leader of the era, Glenn Miller.

Within two minutes, the plane had vanished into the fog for ever. Not a trace was ever found, nor any reason for its disappearance established.

Fred Shaw, a navigator on one of the Lancasters, was a witness. The documentary makers discovered an amateur film interview made with Mr Shaw shortly before he died in retirement in South Africa some years ago.

At the time, he was dismissed as a publicity seeker. In any event, there were a number of apparently unanswerable questions. Miller’s inexperienced pilot had failed to register a flightpath, so how could it ever be proved that his plane had crossed the path of the Lancasters?

There was also a full hour’s discrepancy in flight times. And how did Mr Shaw recognise a Noorduyn Norseman, a Canadian plane of which there were only half a dozen in Britain, all in American airbases?

Mr Shaw answers the last question easily: he got his navigation training in Manitoba, Canada, where the Norseman was in constant use.

The other questions required the expertise of Roy Nesbit, an aviation historian and now the RAF editor at the public record office. Mr Nesbit devoted years of research to the problem.

“First, the Norseman had no option but to travel on what was called the SHAEF shuttle to France [the route employed by the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces]”, Mr Nesbit told the Guardian.

The south-east coast was bristling with anti-aircraft emplacements, but a route had been cleared for flights.
Another crucial spot was the jettison zone, a 10-mile circle where loaded bombers could dump their perilous 500lb cargoes.

This zone was never openly marked on maps or in official records, but Mr Nesbit, who has special access to documents, was able to pinpoint it to a spot which is within a couple of miles of the SHAEF shuttle path.

Miller’s pilot is known to have had little expertise in flying by instruments and would have used a compass – notoriously unreliable when flying over an area with no landmarks – meaning he could easily have strayed into the jettison zone.

Mr Nesbit believes that he has also cleared up the fatal discrepancy of one hour.

“I was able to establish this by comparing logs written in the air with operations in the record book,” he said. “The Americans used local time, but we used Greenwich mean time, which gives the hour’s discrepancy.”

There is more evidence, but of course the “official”explanation remains… merely saying Miller’s plane went “missing.”

And as governments are not known for telling the truth or admitting mistakes, and with a public happy to remain ignorant and indifferent… Well, I hope at least this opens your eyes to the REAL tragic ending of THE GLENN MILLER STORY.